ISic000157: Funerary epitaph for Coponia

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo J. Prag 2023-07-05.
ID
ISic000157
Language
Latin
Text type
funerary
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text on basis of autopsy

Physical description

Support

Description
Large rectangular plaque in brown/grey marble. Lower left corner missing, obscuring the beginning of lines 2-3. Traces of likely modern mortar and paint on sides. Stone is polished smooth on front face, but is not uniformly flat on the front surface. Rear is almost perfectly flat and polished.
Object type
plaque
Material
marble
Condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 23.5 cm, width: 36.5 cm, depth: 3 cm

Inscription

Layout
Three lines of Latin text, centred on the stone, with the header of line 1 filling the upper half of the stone. Interpuncts only used in final line, and do not follow a consistent pattern (first visible interpunct is shaped like a tight comma, second like a diagonal slash, third like a larger comma, final like a downwards slash).
Text condition
No data
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: 39-40mm
Line 2: 39-41mm
Line 3: 39-44mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Thermae Himeraeae
Provenance found
First recorded/seen by Ferrua in 1941 in the museum, provenance assumed to be Termini Imerese.

Current location

Place
Termini Imerese, Italy
Repository
Museo Civico Baldassare Romano , 68
Autopsy
Antoniou, 2023-07-05. In the Depositi of Museo Civico Baldassare Romano, room 1, scaffold 8, shelf 1
Map

Date

later 2nd century CE (Ferrua on the basis of the letter forms) (AD 150 – AD 200)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

funerary

commentary

Ferrua suggests that the full restoration of the missing cognomen from lines 2-3 is Amemta, which is of Greek origin, and which is rare, but is more commonly found in the masculine form (Amemptos), deriving from the adjective commonly found in contemporary Greek funerary inscriptions in Sicily. There are two other attestations of members of the gens Coponia from Thermae Himeraeae, see ISic000156 and ISic000158, and another attestation from Messana, see ISic000273. As Bivona (1994) stresses, the gens Coponia is represented by a handful of republican senators and one equestrian procurator of Judaea under Augustus.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
7/24/2025